I wasn't sure of the proper title for this thread, but I recently heard it mentioned on a podcast that "Generation X" is the primary collecting market when it comes to many toylines (and on to statues, busts, replicas, etc.) Do you think that is true? Sure, we all know of people older and younger than that particular age group that collect - it does often seem like the majority of "core collectors" land somewhere in the 25-40ish age group. That may just be from my experiences though. Also, as much as Hasbro thinks they are building a new group of collectors with the Clone Wars animation/figures - I really don't think that will be the case for the most part. There will be exceptions of course, but in this different world of tons of video games, ipods, cell phones - and all of this stuff starting at a younger age - "lifetime" collectors might be few and far between. Heck, kids seem to lose interest in toys in general at a much younger age.

When you look at a lot of the big collector lines - Star Wars, Transformers, He-Man, G.I. Joe, etc. - those are all franchises originally based in the late 70s/early 80s. You also have the comic characters from Marvel and DC, and that might be something that touches each generation between 60+ years of comic history, as well as the recent influx of comic book movies. It seems like some of us hold a lot of nostalgia for our youth's cartoons and toys, and I don't know if that exists for younger people/kids for the most part. I look at my brother, who will be 20 this year, and while he does keep a small Yoda collection (primarily due to me I'm guessing initially) - he seems to care less about "having the stuff" from his youth. That seems to be more of an older age set. Like I said, there are certainly exceptions - but do you think the large core of action figure/franchise collectors lie in a certain age group? If so, what does that mean for the future of collecting as that age group gets older?